It's a simple fact, really: every day, thousands upon thousands of new faces pick up a guitar, place their fingers on a piano, or sing a note for the very first time. Within the admittedly overpopulated industry as we know it, it is becoming increasingly hard for aspiring artists to really get their name out there, but for every new face shooting for a spot in the industry, there's a new website developed to help them along on that journey. It's true that there plenty of websites specifically designed to help you with that new instrument or fine-tuning that potentially amazing voice of yours, but in all actuality, all you need is a basic Internet connection, a device that can access it and a camera of some sort, you're already on your way to superstardom without hardly any extra fees. Following the five websites below have been a boon for up-and-coming artists in the industry which have brought to them droves of fans that they otherwise never would have accumulated, and while being the next Bieber in terms of online-driven acclaim is something rare even for the most talented of vocalists, it's certainly something to shoot for, and you'll still be in a better position than you are now doing nothing but hiding your talents from the world by incorporating the sites below into your music routine.
YouTube
Out of all of the sites listed here, this one is by far the most obvious for an aspiring music artist to hop on into. It's entirely free to sign up for and it provides a steady platform for artists to display themselves on for millions of viewers across the world. The aforementioned Justin Bieber got his start on YouTube before being discovered by Usher, and Ellen DeGeneres often has her hand in picking out a few hopefuls on the site to bring some fame to, Greyson Chance being but one of multiple standouts. Aside from that, it's very possible for you as a viable music artist to establish yourself on the platform. Such faces as Chester See, DeStorm, and Dave Days without a doubt owe their entire careers as artists in the industry to YouTube, and it's offered such YouTube phenoms as Pentatonix and Andrew Garcia to thrive and evolve far past what their expiration dates and limits might have been without the help of the site. If you're totally green, you can even nab some free lessons on whatever your little musical heart desires there from the likes of such coaches as Eric Arcenaux and Lypur. If you haven't opened an account for yourself now, it's highly recommended that you do. Moving forward, YouTube will only continue to grow as one of the driving forces behind making thousands of peoples' hopes and dreams come true before an international audience.
Twitter and Facebook
This should be another obvious one. Just about anybody who's anybody has a Twitter account in this day and age, and at least once you've shown your face on YouTube to an audience of even a ten people or less, you should sign up for one of these bad boys if you haven't yet. It can essentially a tool for your fans, as few as they may be at the start, to follow you on from day to day, and those more frequent updates of yours will definitely make them feel closer to you, like they were your friend or part of the "circle," which definitely will help you out in the long run, especially with that handy retweet function that can help your fans easily spread word of your talents to their own followers. When your number of followers increase and you begin trending for the first time for the hard work you have put into building your online presence, trust me, Twitter will prove itself to be a worthwhile investment of your time. As for Facebook, it and Twitter simply go hand-in-hand. Using a handy "like" page to co-exist with your Twitter page so that your fans may reach you across the two most popular social media mediums today is just common sense.
On a related note, no matter what you may think about it now, Instagram has essentially established itself as "the Twitter of pictures" in how immensely popular and accessible it has already become. Celebrities are often using it to share photo updates with their fans and, considering the popularity of the service, incorporating use of it into your daily routine as an artist somewhere down the road is definitely something you should consider to further promote yourself. If you end up on the featured page just once because of it, you're golden, my friend.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is another viable social media option for you to follow through with creating an account for. Essentially, on it, as the name suggests, you can share sound files with your followers. These files can be however long as you please, basically, and through it, you could offer podcasts, snippets of new songs or of live previews for upcoming YouTube performances you may be concocting, or even full songs if you're just feeling generous on some occasion. In order to connect with your fans through your music on a more frequent basis, you could easily just sign up for a SoundCloud account and get to uploading, cross-promoting that account through your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and/or Instagram account. Together, these five social media applications could create a perfect storm for you if you treat them well and update them often enough to keep your relevance. They're all totally free to sign up for and maintain, so it's not like it's ripping the shirt off of your back to work with these sites, and if you amass a large enough fanbase at one point that could warrant your creating some tunes for sale, then that leads to the use of...
Bandcamp
Like all of the sites mentioned above, Bandcamp is entirely free to sign up for, but it does charge you a tad bit in percentage fees every time that you make a sale, hence the disclaimer at the start of this article denoting that there will be "hardly" any extra fees. With that said, it offers what I believe to be the most viable option for you to sell your singles, EPs, and eventual full albums through, as Bandcamp is by far the cheapest well-known way of digitally distributing goods out there. There's an option for physical delivery as well, but that would cost ya a pretty penny to create a CD, so that's why we're not touching upon that here- digital distribution, nonetheless, is the way of the future anyway. you can make a good amount of revenue and get your name out there further by putting your goods up for digital sale at Bandcamp. So, in conclusion, get yourself a nice little fanbase through the social media sites above, and then sell to them for a cheap cost on your part- and hopefully a cheap cost on theirs' too, lest you be an ungenerous, cold-hearted being -and you yourself could be the next David Choi, Tyler Ward, or even Bieber in terms of web-accumulated recognition and sales. So, what are you waiting for? Get to work and enjoy the ride!
To keep up with my latest articles, make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter!
YouTube
Out of all of the sites listed here, this one is by far the most obvious for an aspiring music artist to hop on into. It's entirely free to sign up for and it provides a steady platform for artists to display themselves on for millions of viewers across the world. The aforementioned Justin Bieber got his start on YouTube before being discovered by Usher, and Ellen DeGeneres often has her hand in picking out a few hopefuls on the site to bring some fame to, Greyson Chance being but one of multiple standouts. Aside from that, it's very possible for you as a viable music artist to establish yourself on the platform. Such faces as Chester See, DeStorm, and Dave Days without a doubt owe their entire careers as artists in the industry to YouTube, and it's offered such YouTube phenoms as Pentatonix and Andrew Garcia to thrive and evolve far past what their expiration dates and limits might have been without the help of the site. If you're totally green, you can even nab some free lessons on whatever your little musical heart desires there from the likes of such coaches as Eric Arcenaux and Lypur. If you haven't opened an account for yourself now, it's highly recommended that you do. Moving forward, YouTube will only continue to grow as one of the driving forces behind making thousands of peoples' hopes and dreams come true before an international audience.
Twitter and Facebook
This should be another obvious one. Just about anybody who's anybody has a Twitter account in this day and age, and at least once you've shown your face on YouTube to an audience of even a ten people or less, you should sign up for one of these bad boys if you haven't yet. It can essentially a tool for your fans, as few as they may be at the start, to follow you on from day to day, and those more frequent updates of yours will definitely make them feel closer to you, like they were your friend or part of the "circle," which definitely will help you out in the long run, especially with that handy retweet function that can help your fans easily spread word of your talents to their own followers. When your number of followers increase and you begin trending for the first time for the hard work you have put into building your online presence, trust me, Twitter will prove itself to be a worthwhile investment of your time. As for Facebook, it and Twitter simply go hand-in-hand. Using a handy "like" page to co-exist with your Twitter page so that your fans may reach you across the two most popular social media mediums today is just common sense.
On a related note, no matter what you may think about it now, Instagram has essentially established itself as "the Twitter of pictures" in how immensely popular and accessible it has already become. Celebrities are often using it to share photo updates with their fans and, considering the popularity of the service, incorporating use of it into your daily routine as an artist somewhere down the road is definitely something you should consider to further promote yourself. If you end up on the featured page just once because of it, you're golden, my friend.
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is another viable social media option for you to follow through with creating an account for. Essentially, on it, as the name suggests, you can share sound files with your followers. These files can be however long as you please, basically, and through it, you could offer podcasts, snippets of new songs or of live previews for upcoming YouTube performances you may be concocting, or even full songs if you're just feeling generous on some occasion. In order to connect with your fans through your music on a more frequent basis, you could easily just sign up for a SoundCloud account and get to uploading, cross-promoting that account through your Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and/or Instagram account. Together, these five social media applications could create a perfect storm for you if you treat them well and update them often enough to keep your relevance. They're all totally free to sign up for and maintain, so it's not like it's ripping the shirt off of your back to work with these sites, and if you amass a large enough fanbase at one point that could warrant your creating some tunes for sale, then that leads to the use of...
Bandcamp
Like all of the sites mentioned above, Bandcamp is entirely free to sign up for, but it does charge you a tad bit in percentage fees every time that you make a sale, hence the disclaimer at the start of this article denoting that there will be "hardly" any extra fees. With that said, it offers what I believe to be the most viable option for you to sell your singles, EPs, and eventual full albums through, as Bandcamp is by far the cheapest well-known way of digitally distributing goods out there. There's an option for physical delivery as well, but that would cost ya a pretty penny to create a CD, so that's why we're not touching upon that here- digital distribution, nonetheless, is the way of the future anyway. you can make a good amount of revenue and get your name out there further by putting your goods up for digital sale at Bandcamp. So, in conclusion, get yourself a nice little fanbase through the social media sites above, and then sell to them for a cheap cost on your part- and hopefully a cheap cost on theirs' too, lest you be an ungenerous, cold-hearted being -and you yourself could be the next David Choi, Tyler Ward, or even Bieber in terms of web-accumulated recognition and sales. So, what are you waiting for? Get to work and enjoy the ride!
To keep up with my latest articles, make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter!
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